Baited Truth

by Hype, Jenn

  And I was the prey.

  The realization was enough to snap me out of my trance. Surprise first, followed by rejection and then finally landing on anger, Grant's fleeting emotions were enough to have my own head spinning. Or maybe it was how quickly I stood that made me dizzy.

  That was definitely it. Sleep deprivation was screwing with my head. A few hours of sleep was all I needed.

  That, and maybe a good orgasm or two.

  Chapter Ten

  You Used To Call Me On My Cellphone

  Grant

  Nothing makes you feel like more of an asshole than waking up with your hard-on poking the ass of a girl you held all night, trying to help her ward off the nightmares that made her wake up in a cold sweat, crying out for you.

  Yeah, it wasn't technically my fault, because I'd been asleep. Even awake I had little control over my dick. Most of the time he made decisions for himself without consulting me to begin with.

  Still didn't make me feel like less of an asshole.

  When she'd woken up screaming my name, I leapt from my makeshift bed on the floor, immediately reaching for my gun. It was a damn near impossibility that someone could actually force their way into HQ, but I wasn't taking any chances when it came to Brooke.

  Not even going to acknowledge how afraid I was when I initially thought her in danger. Nope, just blocking that part right now. Never happened.

  It was worse than her upset earlier. Loud, almost violent sobs poured out of her. Once I knew she wasn't in danger, I scooped her up and sat back against the headboard and pulled her tight against my chest. Her trembling arms wrapped around my neck as she buried her face into the crook of my neck. Each time a hot tear slid down her cheek and landed on my shoulder my jaw clenched tighter. I wanted to absorb her pain, erase her memories and fight the demons for her. She didn't have to tell me what she'd dreamt. No matter what had upset her in her sleep, it was triggered by that man. The man who wouldn't have been kept up all night if he'd taken her life or mine.

  No matter what happened from there on out, I already knew I was fully invested. Brooke's life was in my hands, whether she liked it or not. I was claiming her as my responsibility, and we were going to find out who the asshole was trying to hurt her. And I would fucking strangle him with my bare hands when we did.

  "Should we come back at a better time?"

  It was hard to be mad at Nick for cock blocking me when I'm pretty sure I owed him for cock blocking me. Saving me from making a huge mistake didn't stop me from wanting to punch him in his face, though.

  I'd expected to see his usual, smug, annoying as fuck grin. What I hadn't expected was everyone else to be standing right next to him.

  "When did invasion of privacy become a thing around here? Get the fuck out!"

  I don't know what I expected to find when I looked down at Brooke laying next to me, but it definitely wasn't a sexy grin that had my dick rising back up to full mast. Regret? Embarrassment? Annoyance? Anger? All emotions that would have made sense. Regret from letting me see her in a state of vulnerability - again. Embarrassment from everyone standing there staring at us like animals in a zoo. Annoyance at the erection digging at her hip. Anger at me from all or any of the above.

  That all would make sense.

  Her giggling when my frown deepened? What the hell was I supposed to do with that?

  "Not a morning person, huh?" For the first time since laying my eyes on her through that security camera, she actually looked...relaxed.

  "Not before coffee, no."

  "I've got coffee brewing so get your ass up. We have something important to tell you," Nick chimed in.

  He was already gone, along with everyone else, before I could yell at him again. When I turned back to Brooke she was climbing off the bed, giving me a nice glimpse of her ass. If it weren't for the possibility of someone barging in again, I would have said fuck it and yanked her back down and claimed her. Would spend hours exploring and memorizing every inch of the body that had been pressed up against mine, torturing me all night.

  But the playfulness was gone. Her eyes darting around the room as she nervously tugged at t-shirt she was swimming in. Uncertainty filled her expression, and my fingers twitched, wanting to smooth the creases between her eyes. Kiss her forehead until she relaxed against me. Hold her in my arms until she felt safe and happy again.

  Fuck.

  "There's an extra toothbrush under the sink if you want to use it. I threw your clothes in the wash last night so you'd have your own clothes to wear. I'll get them and be back in a bit if you want to take a shower or something."

  I needed her to leave the room. Give me a minute. A reprieve from her mussed hair, tempting legs and pert breasts. All reasons I couldn't get out of bed. The reasons my hard-on was refusing to go away.

  "I um, I appreciate everything you've done so far. I'm sorry I was difficult at first. I don't really know who to trust right now, but you've...I mean..."

  The vulnerable, timid version of Brooke was killing me. It was so much easier not to be tempted by her when she was making me insane. With her shoulders slightly hunched, her chin dipped and eyes avoiding mine, all I wanted to do was pull her into my arms. Hold her until I could figure out how to make this all go away. A primitive urge to stake my claim, assign myself as her protector and keep her safe while I found vengeance against the ones hurting her rose up.

  Dangerous. That line of thinking got people killed. Or in the very least, left them with internal wounds that were much harder to heal than ones of the flesh.

  "Don't worry about it," I responded tersely, almost apologizing when she flinched. But she needed to get back to hating me. When this was all over, I was going to walk away. But I was going to see this through, and we couldn't do it without her cooperation, and that meant she needed to be strong.

  With a jerk of her head she disappeared into the bathroom. I grumbled while pulling a shirt over my head, mumbling every curse word I could think of the whole twenty feet it took me to get to the kitchen where the team sat. Quiet. Waiting. Staring.

  "What?"

  No one, not even Nick, made any jokes. No one said anything at all.

  Something was seriously wrong.

  Hunter jerked his chin in the direction I'd come from. "Brooke going to be a minute?"

  I knew what he was asking. Whatever was going on was confidential. I glanced over my shoulder and shook my head, indicating now was not the time. Hunter nodded that he understood, and then Trent broke the tense silence.

  "All of our safe houses have been compromised."

  Trent telling me he was into sloth porn would have been less of a shock.

  "How the hell is that even possible?"

  It was then that I noticed how fucking forlorn Trent looked. Like someone had kicked his dog and killed his mom on the same day.

  "I'm still working on it, but best guess is someone hacked our system. The only safe houses still standing are the ones we keep offline."

  Shit. No wonder Trent looked so defeated. He prided himself on how secure our computers were. If someone made it in undetected and got information that could put us at jeopardy, he was probably kicking the shit out of himself internally.

  "If that is what happened, that does not make it your fault Trent. There has to be an explanation."

  Trent shrugged like he wasn't affected, but he was a shitty liar. There was a reason we rarely let him go out in the field. He could take down a morally corrupt conglomerate with the click of a button, but taking down the people behind those conglomerates was not his forte. Oh, he was a good shot and he'd do what needed to be done in the moment, but it ate at him worse than the rest of us. Any time Trent was forced to take a life, it took him out for weeks.

  "I should know for sure in a few hours. No way whoever managed to break through my firewalls made it in and out without detection. I'll catch the fucker."

  With Trent no longer looking defeated, but determined, I turned my attention to Hunter. "A
ny word from Jack?"

  "Negative. Goes straight to voicemail. Last location according to his phone's GPS is his house. Call logs show him getting a call from a number we traced to a burner phone around ten last night."

  "That was right before my mom called me."

  Everyone turned to see Brooke entering the room, her tiny body seeming to take up all the space in the room. Even though she was in my domain, she commanded all of the attention.

  "Hope you don't mind, but I checked your mom's phone as well. Jack called her two days ago, then she made a call to him around 9:45pm last night."

  Brooke's eyebrows furrowed. "The same Jack you asked me about yesterday? The one whose name is on my dog tags?" I nodded and her frown deepened. "Who is Jack exactly?"

  It was then that I remembered I still hadn't told Brooke a damn thing about us. Part of me wanted to just spill it all, every little detail, but the rational part of me reasoned I couldn't fully trust her yet. I might want to, and I was definitely getting there, but not yet.

  "Jack runs our operation here. He recruited each of us for his... business. We each have a unique skill set. He is the one who set up all the safe houses, protocols and almost every detail about what we do."

  "Which is?" She dragged out the question, but I just shook my head. "If my mom supposedly knows this Jack person, then I think I have the right to know more."

  Alice spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. "No way Jack just shut off his phone. And if he were able, he would have checked in another way. My money is on Jack and Mary being in the same place. Whoever took Mary most likely has Jack. We find one, we find the other."

  "So, our theory of someone being after Brooke just because she witnessed her mom's abduction is looking less likely. If her mom is somehow tied to Jack, it's more likely that Brooke is more than just a loose end," Nick pointed out, then looked apologetically at Brooke. She didn't seem the least bit perturbed by someone trying to hurt her.

  "So Brooke showing up at Wilson definitely isn't a random coincidence. Jack getting a call from Mary's phone right before both of them went missing definitely links them, we just don't know how," Hunter mused aloud.

  "Hang on," Trent said as he hopped to his feet. "I was searching the name of that officer you gave us but got interrupted with the safe house situation." Trent's fingers went flying on the keyboard as he typed in the name.

  "Yep, here it is." Trent sat back in his chair, crossing his arms while the rest of us hovered over his shoulder, peering at his screen. After her little meltdown in the bathroom, she'd been a lot more compliant. Maybe it was me confiding a little in her about the team. Who knew. All that mattered was that she'd given us some more information on Officer Knowles and her mom. Enough for Trent to get to work.

  "Okay, so if this is accurate, then Jerry Knowles died when he was two," Trent explained, pointing to the death certificate he had pulled up on his screen.

  "Well, obviously you are looking at the wrong Jerry Knowles then," Brooke argued. Trent raised one eyebrow, probably deciding whether or not to be offended that Brooke accused him of doing his job incorrectly. He wisely decided against it and kept his mouth shut.

  "Trent has the right guy. See," Alice pointed to the place on the screen that showed his last known address prior to death - second death - as the address where Brooke said he lived near her and her mom. When Brooke's brows furrowed, Alice went on to explain. "That means Jerry Knowles isn't his real name. For whatever reason, he was living under a false identity."

  My arm snaked around Brooke when she stumbled backwards, narrowly saving her from falling backwards. I nodded to the team and they took the hint. One by one they filed out of the room, giving me some privacy with Brooke. She didn't even notice the room had cleared out. Her eyes were locked on the floor, flitting back and forth.

  "Hey," I said, gripping her chin and forcing her to look at me. She looked so damn lost. Like she did right before she fell to the bathroom floor. It gutted me to see that look in her eyes. The reasons why didn't fucking matter in that minute. All that mattered was making sure Brooke knew we were in this together. "Just because it wasn't his real name doesn't mean he was doing anything bad. He could have been in witness protection or something, we don't know yet. Don't assume the worst, okay? We'll figure this out. Together."

  The uncertainty remained, but something shifted in her. In the air surrounding us. Like an electric buzz, making the hairs on my arms stand on end. Never taking her eyes from mine, her soft hands slid up my arms and over my shoulders before wrapping around my neck. With the slightest of tugs, she pulled my face down at the same time as she rose up on her toes. Suddenly her lips were on mine. Brushing gently, her mouth slowly peppering mine with small, open mouthed kisses.

  Before I could decide whether to deepen the kiss or end it, she pulled away. She was still so close I could feel her hot breath on my face. If she hadn't muttered a thank you before pulling away further, I would have made the huge mistake of pulling her back in for another kiss.

  "Grant," Trent called out from behind me. Every time someone interrupted one of these tense moments with Brooke I had conflicting feelings about it. Wanting to punch them and thank them at the same time. The contradictive reactions I had were pissing me off. "I'll be back in a minute, okay?"

  Brooke nodded meekly. I was tempted to tell Trent to go fuck himself and just haul her against me, but I resisted. Until we found Jack and her mom, there wasn't time for being reckless and impulsive.

  Shutting the door behind me, I took in the same somber expressions I'd seen the first time I walked into a room that day. Mouths pulled into tight lines, eyes heavy with an emotion I couldn't place.

  "Spit it out," I demanded. Brooke was waiting for me in the next room, and for reasons I didn't care to admit to, I was anxious to get back to her.

  Instead of answering me, Trent turned his laptop around on the table. A few steps closed the distance between us, and what I saw pulled up on his screen stole all the air from my lungs. It complicated everything. The trust I'd been so willing to hand over to Brooke minutes ago was forced back behind a wall of reservation and uncertainty.

  "I pulled up the birthdate thing in front of Brooke to see if she'd give anything away," Trent explained. "My opinion? She doesn't know anything."

  If she knew, she was a hell of an actress, but it was too much of a risk. Until I knew for certain that she had no clue, I couldn't let her in completely. Revealing too much too soon could result in the kind of backlash that had the potential to destroy not only everything we'd all worked for, but maybe even our lives.

  "Are you sure this is accurate? Could it be some sort of anomaly? Maybe he has a twin we don't know about. Or someone screwed with the records in the system. Or-"

  Trent cut me off with a shake of his head. There was no point. Trent didn't make mistakes. If this was an error of some kind, he would have been the one to catch it, not make it.

  No way around it. Jack and Officer Knowles were the same person.

  Chapter Eleven

  Hit The Road, Jack

  Brooke

  "I'm going with you."

  "No, you're not. You'd just slow me down. Until we figure out where your mom and Jack are and how they know each other, you're staying put. I can't be worrying about you while I'm searching for clues."

  On the verge of throwing a temper tantrum, I stomped out of the bedroom where Grant was cramming weapons into a canvas duffle bag. Grant and his broody attitude could kiss my ass.

  "Someone get that man in check before I cause him some serious bodily harm," I barked out to no one in particular as I collapsed onto the couch.

  "That's hilarious. Grant doesn't listen to anyone except Jack." Alice plopped down next to me, handing me a bottle of water.

  "I don't know how you work with him on a daily basis. I'd have murdered him by now if I were you."

  Trent snorted from his seat in the arm chair across from us, looking up from his laptop long enough for me to
see the incredulity on his face. "Grant would be harder to take down than the Hulk. He's better than all of us in hand-to-hand combat and weapons. The fact that you got him on the ground means either you have superhero powers, or you're too much of a distraction for him. Which is also rare. Grant never screws around. Always all business. I've never seen him so worked up."

  "You better shut your mouth before you say too much or Grant will kick your ass," Hunter chimed in from his stool next to the kitchen island. The floor plan was completely open, a lot like the house they kept referring to as 'Wilson.' You know, the house that no longer existed.

  "Whatever dude. We'll just sic Brooke on him." Nick looked to me, like he was making sure I wasn't offended. When I winked, he relaxed a fraction. See, that's what a good guy does. Cares if he's offending you. Unlike controlling pricks who go all Jekyll and Hyde on you out of nowhere. One minute he's all caring and comforting and sweet. The next he's tossing me around like a rag doll.

  Of course, me kissing him was a pretty colossal mixed signal, so I was one to talk.

  "Yeah well, you're about to see me kick his ass again right now if he doesn't let me go with him to Jack's."

  "It really would be better for you to just stay here. Without knowing who is behind all of this, it's hard to be prepared. That you've been attacked twice already, once in public, tells me they are desperate to get to you. Although hopefully we get a lead on that soon, once the finger prints bring back the results." Hunter and his even keeled remarks were pissing me off. I didn't want someone to reason with me right then, dammit. I just wanted everyone to agree with me that Grant was being a huge dicknugget.

  "What finger prints?"

  Trent looked uneasy about answering my question, but Alice spoke up, saving him from his conflict.

  "The shooters got away, but a couple shell casings left behind had prints on them. We sent them off to a lab we use."